Questions after first game

[pyruse]

Played our first game last night (the La Haye Sainte scenario); an excellent game, but inevitably some questions.

1. When multiple units are firing at one target, do they roll separately, or do they roll all dice together?
2. One you have tipped the enemy over their break limit, there's nothing further you can do to make their army break. Killing more units won't make it more likely. You may as well withdraw to make sure you don't lose any more men. Maybe there should be a modifier for further losses?
3. Artillery seemed pretty ineffective because their field of fire is so restricted, and prolonging to change facing is very slow, while if you limber and unlimber you lose two turns of firing.

The result was the British over their break limit, but the game ended before the army failed its break test, so we ruled it a winning draw for the French. The Brits couldn't pass a discipline test to save their lives.
Falling back from combat when outnumbered is a good idea - but it assumes you can roll over 2 on the dice!

[doomben]

1. When multiple units are firing at one target, do they roll separately, or do they roll all dice together?

You add all the hits against one unit together from all enemy, then convert to DISR.  So yes you effectively throw them all together (if they are all needing the same score to hit).  This means it is important players work out which units are shooting at which enemy before they start shooting.

2. One you have tipped the enemy over their break limit, there's nothing further you can do to make their army break. Killing more units won't make it more likely. You may as well withdraw to make sure you don't lose any more men. Maybe there should be a modifier for further losses?

Yes it is an issue.  You can't do anything more to break him, but can lose yourself.  The other guy will therefore throw his zombie units at you and, if you are playing competitively, you should run away - terribly fast.  But it does add some interest for the other guy...

3. Artillery seemed pretty ineffective because their field of fire is so restricted, and prolonging to change facing is very slow, while if you limber and unlimber you lose two turns of firing.

You have to put your artillery in the right place - then they are pretty effective.  Remember when you prolong you can wheel forwards or backwards.  Looking at those options means you can actually change your field of fire quite a bit each turn.

Cam

[pyruse]

Thanks - but you can't prolong artillery if you fired - so you still lose a turn of shooting, and then the enemy scoots out of the vary narrow field of fire......

[Le Grand Fromage]

You may prolong artillery after firing.  page 28.

[Nick the Lemming]

If you're worried about zombie hordes and running away as the only competitive option, use the following simple optional rule:

For every unit broken since your last turn, when you roll morale, lower the total of your roll by one.


This way, if your opponent is rolling morale, you can keep pressing the attack in order to make him roll with penalties. if you manage to kill off two more of his units in your turn, for example, he'll be rolling at -2 against the turn number, giving him a larger chance of failure.

[pyruse]

Just remembered we had another question.
Is there any restriction on moving across the front of enemy units? We couldn't find one.
We found all the restrictions on charge targets for units directly to your front.
But it seems it is OK to move past the front of an enemy unit to charge someone off to the side (assuming you are facing sideways to start with). Obviously this is much more likely to happen with cavalry than infantry.
Is that right?

[marke]

Yes you are right there is no rule restricting moving across the front of another unit.

[Nick the Lemming]

It's often not a wise thing to do though - you might be leaving yourself in a position where your opponent can attack you in the flank or rear with the unit you passed in front of when it comes to his turn, and even if you think you've made it, the combat result might see you being bounced back to directly in front of him.

[mike0liver]

On a historical note, Napoleonic units tended to be more concerned with their own immediate situations when in combat than in what was happening to nearby friends and neighbours - that was the function of their brigadier (or higher). Therefore, if a cavalry unit moved across their front, with no obvious intentions against them, they would likely hold their fire. The cavalry could even be friendly - uniform recognition tended to be a little uncertain (witness the charge of the Vistular Lancers at Albuera whom the Spanish infantry thought to be colleagues).

Consequently, to fire at such cavalry would probably have been considered a waste of ammunition. After all if, following the discharge of their muskets, they were surprised by some other enemy who posed an obvious threat and they did not have loaded muskets, disaster could follow.

Just  a thought.

Mike